Curie council won't take back ouster

Popular principal still out despite protests

March 11, 2007|By Steve Schmadeke, Special to the Tribune

In a close vote before a raucous, standing-room-only crowd, Curie Metro High School's local council decided Saturday not to reconsider their ouster of a principal who Mayor Richard Daley said was a "superstar" at the Southwest Side magnet school.

Immediately after the 5-4 vote, three council members, led by Otis Davis Jr., walked out of the meeting room in support of the ousted principal, Jerryelyn Jones, who did not attend the meeting.

"You should all be ashamed of yourselves!" shouted a woman in the crowd at the council members who remained. The former chair of the school's English department dabbed tears from her eyes.

The controversy over Jones' tenure has become a proxy battle over how much power local school councils should have. Because Jones is African-American and the six board members who originally voted against retaining her are Hispanic, some parents, teachers and students said they think Jones is being shown the door because of her race.

"We feel it was an act of terrorists for them to come in and take over this school and to change things around," Davis said of the slate of five Hispanic candidates elected to the board last July.

The former board chair said he thinks local school councils' powers need to be curbed.

"We will continue to oppose this," Davis said of Saturday's board decision, "and whatever we can do to shut down this LSC and render it ineffective, we'll do that."

Jones, whose contract expires in October, has asked an independent arbitrator to review the board's decision.

Elaine Siegel, the attorney representing the board, said no date has been set yet for a hearing.

Saturday's vote came after board Chairman Tom Ramos Jr. announced Thursday that he would reconsider his February vote against Jones. His reversal, which he said was in response to an outcry from parents and students, came less than a week after Daley waded into the controversy, saying the Board of Education should have the power to overturn the decision.

On Saturday, the mayor said a principal should be judged on performance, not personality, and he lauded the Archer Heights school's attendance record and commitment to educating its diverse student body.

"It's very, very disturbing to me to have a local school board council decide they don't like someone and vote them out," Daley said. "The Board of Education has to do something. Performance in class is what's important, not someone's personality."

Chicago Public Schools spokesman Michael Vaughn also was disheartened by Saturday's decision by the Curie school council.

"We're obviously very disappointed," he said. "Jerryelyn Jones has been giving her heart and soul to that school for 25 years. Anytime you have 100 students coming down to a Board of Ed meeting, that provides a very compelling reason to ask them to reconsider. We appreciated that they kept an open mind and we're disappointed."

Ramos, a Streets and Sanitation Department laborer, said he has received hate mail over the controversy.

He declined to specify why the board did not want to keep Jones on staff, saying only that there were "small things" such as a required report about a meeting Jones held with parents last fall that she never filed. He added that race had nothing to do with the board's original decision.

"I placed this thing on the agenda to try to bring this back to life," he said. "I cannot strong-arm the members to change their vote."

Ramos said it was "like a slap in the face" when the three board members walked out. He said their move had delayed a board vote on important financial matters. The council is not scheduled to meet again until May.

Wanda Hopkins of Parents United for Responsible Education said the real issue at stake in Saturday's vote was whether the rights of local school councils would be upheld.

She was pleased that the board didn't cave in to Daley but said she had no feelings about Jones.

"It's about whether LSCs [have] the right to make their own decisions," she said. "I'm not against Mrs. Jones--and I'm as black as can be--this is about the principle."